In pursuit of profitability
By Todd Phillips
At the 2020 NADA Show, the Canadian auto dealer team interviewed dozens of suppliers, dealers and industry leaders to find out what’s new, what’s hot — and what’s keeping dealers awake at night.
There were some familiar themes: margin compression, a focus on fixed ops and used car revenues, chasing that elusive customer experience, and embracing digital retailing. Dealers were also pushing their suppliers to show them their road map for the future to ensure their offerings are future proof and aligned with the direction they are heading in.
Despite the expected downturn in new vehicle sales, at this year’s NADA Show dealers and suppliers seemed optimistic about their future, but are on the hunt for more profits.
Below, you can hear from dozens of NADA exhibitors and attendees about what you might have missed at NADA Show 2020!
Louis-Yves Cloutier, President
360 Agency
Things were so busy in the 360 Agency booth, that Canadian auto dealer had to circle back and find a moment the company wasn’t doing demos of their new Desking 360 tool.
Company president Louis-Yves Cloutier was excited to talk about the company’s five years of work to bring physical and digital desking of car deals to the same platform. Read full interview…
Julian Johnston, Vice President of Innovation and Platform Philosophy
AutoAlert
For AutoAlert, a company well known for its data mining tools, NADA presented an opportunity for them to reposition the company as a provider of Customer Experience Management tools.
Julian Johnston, the company’s Vice President of Innovation and Platform Philosophy, explained the change. “The original founders started in the data mining vertical within automotive, and have really been innovative and constantly building on that side. So the pivot that we’ve made here is going towards this idea of customer experience management,” he said. Read full interview…
Bob Marvin, Sr. VP, Core DMS Applications
Greg Wallin, VP Sales, Canada Automotive
CDK Global
Over the past year, CDK Global has been focusing on improving partnerships with customers — a focus that also extended to the NADA Show.
Bob Marvin, Sr. VP of Core DMS Applications at CDK Global, said the company is looking to simplify the customer experience around contracting and billing. It’s an area the company identified as a big opportunity — and they are taking action on it. Read full interview…
Wayne Isaacs, Director of Media Solutions
Cox Automotive Canada
For Wayne Isaacs, the Cox Automotive pavilion at NADA helped reinforce to Canadian dealers the full breadth of what the company can now offer with its multiple brands.
“Overall, it’s incredible to see all the different brands coming together in one space,” said Isaacs of the event. “You can literally walk around and find what is a good solution for you as a customer and how we can provide the best opportunity for you to grow your business as a dealer, whether you’re in the United States or in Canada.” Read full interview…
Stephen Jones, Director of Administration
Dave Cantin Group
These are busy times for companies that help match buyers and sellers for car dealerships. Stephen Jones, Director of Administration at the Dave Cantin Group, said there are a number of factors driving the surge in the buy-sell activity.
“There’s been a ton of merchant activity in Canada and the United States. The market’s shifting — there’s all these forces of change, some are saying, ‘I’m tapping out and you know, I don’t feel like my next generation is going to be able to do this, or they want the money, or they don’t want to recapitalize,” said Jones. Read full interview…
Sejal Pietrzak, President & CEO
DealerSocket
As the battleground shifts from products and vehicle technology to the customer experience in dealerships, companies like CRM provider DealerSocket are poised to play an even more meaningful role for their customers.
Sejaj Pietrzak, President & CEO of DealerSocket, said that to keep pace with dealer needs they are listening closely to their customers. “We focus on our dealers, and on making sure that we’re listening and focusing on what they’re looking for. Then we show them how our technology can solve their problems,” said Pietrzak. Read full interview…
Andy Church, Chief Operating Officer, USA
Maxime Theoret, CFO
Dealer Solutions Mergers and Aquisitions
The team from Dealer Solutions Mergers and Aquisitions were down at NADA in full force, talking to dealers, bankers, suppliers and others to help get a pulse of the industry and see whether Canadian or American dealers are in a buying or selling mood.
“It was a great opportunity to network and be visible,” said Maxime Theoret, CFO at Dealer Solutions. Read full interview…
Jay Trotter, VP Sales and Marketing
Driving Sales
Jay Trotter, VP of Sales and Marketing at Driving Sales, said he was encouraged by what he saw and heard at this year’s NADA Show.
“I attended some of the classes, and you can really see the emphasis in the industry changing to people. And although this industry is human, capital management is kind of a foreign word to them, right?” he said. “It was refreshing to see people come to the booths and tell us a little bit more about human capital.” Read full interview…
Jason McClenahan, President and CEO
EBlock
With such growing demand for used cars, online auctions like EBlock are seeing rapid growth, according to Jason McClenahan, the company’s President and CEO. “We’re going to be the largest dealer-to-dealer auction this year. We feel like things are going to ramp up very quickly,” said McClenahan.
The company’s roots are in Canada, but they exhibited at last year’s NADA Show and are now seeing rapid growth on both sides of the border. In January, the company announced a strategic partnership with Auction Edge, that provides brick and mortar auctions with the technology to compete in the dealer-to-dealer space. Read full interview…
Rob Mackenzie, VP of Sales
Final Coat
Final Coat, a provider of appearance protection products, took advantage of the NADA Show this year to browse the show floor and keep an eye out for new technologies being introduced.
“We’re always down here for new technology and we’re always looking for the new widget that is going to be a nice plug into our model and Canada,” said Rob Mackenzie, VP of Sales at Final Coat. “It’s always fun to kind of walk the whole show and see if you can sort the wheat from the chaff.” Read full interview…
Alexandre Thivierge, Regional Manager
Hunter Engineering
Things were buzzing in the Hunter Engineering booth at the NADA Show this year. It was one supplier at NADA that didn’t really have to talk a lot about their products, because they were fully on display with interactive demos and lots of onlookers.
The company showcased its automated Quick Check vehicle inspection system, and the Revolution Walkaway Tire Changer, among many other new products. “Dealers are pressed for time, they’re trying to make money in service and every dollar counts. The Quick Check Drive is a product designed to raise the dollar per RO, to try to take every opportunity that comes in the door,” said Alexandre Thivierge, a Regional Manager with Hunter Engineering. Read full interview…
Robert Issenman, President
Leader Auto Resources
For Robert Issenman, President of Leader Auto Resources (LAR), the NADA Show provides him an opportunity to meet with suppliers and evaluate their new products to see if they would be a good fit for the company’s network of dealership clients. “We work on deepening and strengthening relationships, and make sure we are on top of what they are doing,” said Issenman.
Apart from reviewing the new products from current suppliers, he said the company also scouts for new products. “We have to assess it and see whether it fits,” said Issenman, adding it has to fit within the LAR model, which is for the group to use its buying power to reduce costs for dealer members. “If we’re not adding value, if we’re not reducing costs, we won’t even entertain it.” Read full interview…
Patrick Manzi, Senior Economist
National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA)
Canadian auto dealer met up with Patrick Manzi, NADA Senior Economist, who projected the U.S. new vehicle market would decline this year, if only slightly, and offered a recap of his overview of the industry.
“In 2019, we had 17.1 new light vehicle sales and when I was at the convention last year, I was expecting sub-17 million a year,” said Manzi. “Then we got three interest rate cuts, which kind of gives a little bit of a boost to those people on the margin who maybe weren’t able to afford that payment right now, but could because we had lower rates.” Read full interview…
Joshua Allen, Vice President
Naked Lime
Joshua Allen, VP of Naked Lime, a digital marketing company, spoke to us at NADA and revealed that Canadian dealers can expect to hear more from the company at TADA’s ACE Conference in Niagara Falls, Ont., where they will be “re-launching Naked Lime in Canada.”
“We’ll have a big launch there and then some press releases throughout the next couple of months,” said Allen. “It’s our suite of digital marketing services, first and foremost being our website platform. Not only are we re-launching it, but we re-programmed it on a fully-responsive design platform to be able to sell to any franchise dealer in Canada.” Read full interview…
Paul Faletti, President & CEO
Trevor Robinson, VP, Client Solutions and Business Development
NCM Associates
Paul Faletti, President and CEO of NCM Associates said he liked what he was hearing from dealers at the NADA Show. “Dealers are coming in very informed, they are asking the right questions. They’ve done their research and are at the point where they really know what they want,” said Faletti.
Faletti said dealers know that with declining new car sales they need to focus on tightening and improving their operations and being part of a 20 Group and additional training are part of that. “I think dealers have a pretty good idea of where they stand at this point and the progressive ones now are doing something about it. What’s nice to see is the commitment to our training businesses. It’s one of the fastest growing areas of our business and has been for the past couple of years,” said Faletti. Read full interview…
Chris Bradley, VP Software & Services
PBS
When the dealer landscape changes, software providers need to adapt too. That’s why PBS Systems, a leading provider of DMS systems, is offering more functionality to meet the needs of dealer groups.
“We have been a DMS provider for 25-plus years, and we made some major changes that allow us to install dealer groups that we wouldn’t have been able to in our previous platform,” said Chris Bradley, VP of Software & Services. Read full interview…
Christopher Nadolny VP, Risk Management
Pitcher and Doyle
Christopher Nadolny, VP of Risk Management at Pitcher and Doyle, spent a lot of his time at the NADA Show checking out the newest technology to help protect and preserve a dealership’s investment in its vehicles and facilities.
“We’re one of four major players in Canada for garage policy, auto insurance and dealer insurance. We’re trying to evolve our product to meet the needs of growing groups,” said Nadolny, adding that this means exploring self-insurance and captive options, being more flexible, and tailoring policies for dealer groups. Read full interview…
Thomas Clawson, Vertical Marketing Manager
Podium
Podium still considers reputation management its bread and butter (think Google reviews), but the company has evolved, and is really working with dealers to beef up their interactions with their customers via text messaging.
Thomas Clawson, Vertical Marketing Manager at Podium, said the company learned through the reputation management process that texting was how consumers wanted to communicate. And then they started texting them, asking consumers if they would like to leave a review. And those people would click the link in their text message. Read full interview…
Charlie Bass, Vice President of Sales
PureCars
NADA has proven successful for many of the vendors that Canadian auto dealer spoke to this year — one being PureCars, who took the opportunity to launch their new platform Meridian.
“We did a lot of advertising leading up to that. And we’ve talked a little bit more about what Meridian is. And so when the dealers came by, we had a good amount of Canadians and Americans,” said Charlie Bass, Vice President of Sales at PureCars. “Some of the biggest players in Canada came by. More customers came by as well. The main thing that they’re asking is about efficiency — dealers are looking for efficiency.” Read full interview…
Maury Marks, President & CEO
Quorum
For Quorum President and CEO Maury Marks, the NADA Show 2020 had him boosting his daily step counts as he travelled between the Quorum and DealerMine booths, a CRM company the DMS provider acquired in 2018.
Marks said he was happy with the traffic and performance of this year’s show. “We were quite pleased. What was nice for us is not only to get a fair bit of traffic, but a lot of really meaningful conversations,” said Marks. Read full interview…
Dave Bates, Vice President of Customer Support for the U.S. and Canada
Reynolds & Reynolds
At the NADA Show, Reynolds & Reynolds took dealers through the development path of their DMS software, and how they have evolved to support digital retailing and a better in-dealership F&I experience.
“We’ve been working for the last 10 years — rebuilding our platform,” said Dave Bates, Vice President of Customer Support for the U.S. and Canada, Reynolds & Reynolds. “We rebuilt it from the ground up, and had a focus on making it more of a retailing system than just a dealer management system.” Read full interview…
Andy Moss, CEO
Michelle Denogean, Chief Marketing Officer
Roadster
For U.S.-based Roadster, which offers digital retailing tools, one key observation at this year’s NADA Show was the number of dealers that were eager to jump on the digital bandwagon, according to CEO Andy Moss.
“They’re now ready. It’s one of those things where I think the technology has been there and now the dealers are starting to really embrace it,” said Moss. “So now they want to really dive into how it works for their business.” Read full interview…
Benoit Toussaint, Director of Sales
Rousseau
Rousseau Metal, a Quebec-based manufacturer of a wide range of products — including products that dealers and third-party businesses can use for storage — took advantage of the NADA Show 2020 to showcase some innovative new products.
“We took advantage of the event to show our new products, and we had some training sessions for our distributors and specialists,” said Benoît Toussain, Director of Sales at Rousseau. “A lot of people came in for a meeting or made an appointment to gather and see all the other equipment.” Read full interview…
Gary Turac, Sr. Director Strategic Partnerships and Accounts
Anthony Goulbourne, President, Canadian Operations
RouteOne
At NADA 2020, the RouteOne team entertained dealers, lenders and other partners at an upscale event, but also worked hard to reinforce the company’s new integrated offerings with DMS providers.
They are offering their financing portal directly within the DMS system, which leads to a more streamlined experience for their dealer customers. Read full interview…
Nino Malka, National Sales Director
SERTI
DMS provider SERTI exhibited in the ATD truck show adjacent to the NADA main show and unveiled new product developments to customers.
The company, which has a head office in Montreal, Que., has kept busy over the past three years consulting with its dealerships and OEMs, and observing both customers and consumers- according to Nino Malka, National Sales Director at SERTI Dealership System (SERTI). Read full interview…
Dominic Ismaele, CEO
Tire Storage Solutions
Tire Storage Solutions (TSS) has been catering to dealership clients on both sides of the border who are increasingly interested in having their dealerships store their customers’ off-season tires.
Although winter tire replacement and storage are well established in provinces like Quebec where winter tires are mandatory, the concept is still catching hold in other regions, once they understand the the service retention advantages. Read full interview…
Matt Lawson, Vice-President; Dealer Software & OEM
Benoit Laforce, General Manager, Advertising Solutions
Trader
This year TRADER showcased its expanded offerings at the NADA Show, investing more in the event this time around after a successful show appearance in 2019.
The company’s focus was largely on their vehicle listings marketplace and the investments they made in providing expanded digital services to dealers last year, along with helping dealers understand their response in terms of cars sold, according to Matt Lawson Vice-President of Dealer Software & OEM at autoTRADER.ca. Read full interview…
Langley Van Der Kley, Sales Lead, Canada
Winfooz
There was a lot of interest in digital car auctions at NADA 2020, and that kept companies like Winfooz busy. Langley Van Der Kley, the company’s sales lead in Canada, said the reception was great, and dealers were really pushing for new solutions as the market moves more towards the potential for more profits from used vehicles.
“That’s really given them the impetus to be able to say, ‘Hey, how can I sell my vehicles more effectively? How can I sell them more efficiently and how can I get the most money for them?’ And so they’re really interested in what we’ve got to offer,” said Van Der Kley. Read full interview…
